Kim, Val - LOL!
And Heidi - what can I say? To all his friends, Gary blames me, to all my friends, I blame Gary!
Either way... she's here, and we love her. She IS just so darn cute!
Proud Mommy
Yola - MA was contacted by a young girl (15). Her 9-year old brother found this kitty in a park in Queens being hit with sticks. The parents didn't want to help - not even to take the kitty to a vet. From the description it seemed the kitty was about a month old. After a few days, MA was so concerned about the health of the kitten she dug into the files and did what she could - and found someone to get the kitten to a vet in Queens. From there we met up with the kitten in NYC, and had her taken to a boarding facility we frequently use for our ferals in transition. The owner used to raise persians. But... she'd just had her first baby, and it turned ou the kitten wasn't being properly taken care of. The kitty was shaking and trembling, and the owner called us to say the kitty needed to go to a vet, there might have been nerve damage.
We picked her up - and she had food caked all over her face and paws. She'd been living in a large box in a room adjacent to the boarding facilities...we were under the impression she was going to be in the home with the family while they fostered her. They just weren't giving her the attention she needed!
We took her to the vet, and she checked out OK, though they kept her there for a few days for observation. The vet said she was probably 5 MAYBE 6 weeks old - and she'd been at the boarding place for 3 weeks!!! So she wasn't even close to a month old when taken to the first vet. (The first vet did get rid of any parasites she might have had). But our vet didn't clean her up either! She was even worse when we went to see her. Gary was furious, but it's kitten season, and they had 8 other unowned kittens there... so we didn't say anything as they've done so much for us this past year. (We had been thinking of letting her stay at the vet until we got her adopted out... they're usually very good with the kittens, and let them play up at reception... which, of course, always gets them adopted out. But who was going to want that dirty ugly little blob? I smile thinking back on it... they just didn't have the staff they needed to keep all those kitties clean I guess. It is a lot of work, and now we're thankful things turned out the way they did. We're the winners in all of this.
)
So... what else was there to do but bring her home and foster her ourselves? We didn't want to upset the applecart here though... especially with four cats already in such a small space. We kept her separated from them for a few days - and she lives in the bathroom at night (though it's palatial compared to the box she lived in at the boarding facility or the cage at the Vet's).
If you want to read the whole thread about it, it's in SOS: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=19375
Overall, things seem to be going OK with the other kitties. Tuxedo still gets too aggressive with her, but all the trouble has been so worth it! (That thread is in behavior: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=21351)
Gary's a little stretched from the lack of sleep. He's got insomnia and is a light sleeper to begin with, so even though I was taking care of feeding her, my getting up wakes him up. And he's been heading into New York City without me several days a week since I had to stay her to feed her three times a day (we get up at 3:30am for that).
...but as you can see, he's quite happy napping with MaeMae when he's here. And she sure doesn't seem to mind!
And Heidi - what can I say? To all his friends, Gary blames me, to all my friends, I blame Gary!
Yola - MA was contacted by a young girl (15). Her 9-year old brother found this kitty in a park in Queens being hit with sticks. The parents didn't want to help - not even to take the kitty to a vet. From the description it seemed the kitty was about a month old. After a few days, MA was so concerned about the health of the kitten she dug into the files and did what she could - and found someone to get the kitten to a vet in Queens. From there we met up with the kitten in NYC, and had her taken to a boarding facility we frequently use for our ferals in transition. The owner used to raise persians. But... she'd just had her first baby, and it turned ou the kitten wasn't being properly taken care of. The kitty was shaking and trembling, and the owner called us to say the kitty needed to go to a vet, there might have been nerve damage.
We picked her up - and she had food caked all over her face and paws. She'd been living in a large box in a room adjacent to the boarding facilities...we were under the impression she was going to be in the home with the family while they fostered her. They just weren't giving her the attention she needed!
We took her to the vet, and she checked out OK, though they kept her there for a few days for observation. The vet said she was probably 5 MAYBE 6 weeks old - and she'd been at the boarding place for 3 weeks!!! So she wasn't even close to a month old when taken to the first vet. (The first vet did get rid of any parasites she might have had). But our vet didn't clean her up either! She was even worse when we went to see her. Gary was furious, but it's kitten season, and they had 8 other unowned kittens there... so we didn't say anything as they've done so much for us this past year. (We had been thinking of letting her stay at the vet until we got her adopted out... they're usually very good with the kittens, and let them play up at reception... which, of course, always gets them adopted out. But who was going to want that dirty ugly little blob? I smile thinking back on it... they just didn't have the staff they needed to keep all those kitties clean I guess. It is a lot of work, and now we're thankful things turned out the way they did. We're the winners in all of this.
So... what else was there to do but bring her home and foster her ourselves? We didn't want to upset the applecart here though... especially with four cats already in such a small space. We kept her separated from them for a few days - and she lives in the bathroom at night (though it's palatial compared to the box she lived in at the boarding facility or the cage at the Vet's).
If you want to read the whole thread about it, it's in SOS: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=19375
Overall, things seem to be going OK with the other kitties. Tuxedo still gets too aggressive with her, but all the trouble has been so worth it! (That thread is in behavior: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=21351)
Gary's a little stretched from the lack of sleep. He's got insomnia and is a light sleeper to begin with, so even though I was taking care of feeding her, my getting up wakes him up. And he's been heading into New York City without me several days a week since I had to stay her to feed her three times a day (we get up at 3:30am for that).
...but as you can see, he's quite happy napping with MaeMae when he's here. And she sure doesn't seem to mind!
